Now We See Dimly

I thoroughly enjoyed our family’s time at the touring Broadway production of The Lion King. As expected, the music was enjoyable, the costumes and dancing top-notch, and the puppetry was truly mind-boggling. All in all, a great show and yet another affirmation of the fact that I really love musicals.

But also as usual, I didn’t keep my eyes on the stage throughout the show. Whenever I have the privilege of observing professionals in a setting like this, I find it particularly enjoyable to watch the people who are at the back of the spotlight, not just in the spotlight. Because MAN OH MAN are those sound, light, and staging crews INCREDIBLE. The illusions they created with shadows and backdrops and moving sets? We would never have even noticed them (which is their goal, I am sure), except that I just LOVE to watch the unknowns. I think their “service in secret” reminds me of my diaconal husband (and all of my deacons) who delight in serving with absolutely no attention being drawn to themselves. And also of my worship-team leading husband (and all of our church’s worship team members) who likewise strive to be like a frame on a beautiful painting. Never the focus of our attention; always pointing to something (Someone) else.

The deaf interpreters at The Lion King did the exact same thing. Oh! How I loved to observe them. Three brilliant interpreters; at times, taking on multiple roles on the stage. Sometimes turning and facing the stage during a particularly visual moment—so that everyone’s attention was where it ought to be. At other times, laughing, fighting, weeping—all with their hands moving in perfect calmness or perfect tumult. Communicating as much of the amazing show as three interpreters could ever communicate.

I was so grateful for them. And yet, of course, I couldn’t help but think about all that the people who were hearing impaired were missing. Yes, it was great that they could feel the vibrations of the drums and see the colors, faces, staging. It was marvelous how brilliantly the interpreters served them. But they could not hear the music. And the music, after all, took everything else to a level that silence simply never could.

I wonder if it’s like that for us and Heaven.

I wonder if even the best, most glorious moment of our lives—our salvation; corporate worship; being proposed to by the godly man of our dreams; that moment standing in front of an MBA class filled with international students who are befuddled by business law when your service to them helps them to GET IT in a way they never thought they could; your daughter the Concertmistress serving with humility and excellence; a friend remaining faithful over the years, Paul Olsen’s Pilgrimage of Poets …

I wonder if even the most beautiful, kind, faithful, just, lovely, merciful, excellent, sublime experience of our lives is like being a person with 100% hearing loss watching a Broadway musical through even the best deaf interpreters in the world. Beautiful! Excellent! Amazing! But just a glimpse of how truly good it actually is.

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV

This is the truth I am holding onto as my mother worsens every single day and I am living every single moment with the giant grip of a giant hand around my throat; waiting for the call. Dreading the call. Finding it unbearable that the call will come that she is failing, dying, and will be gone soon.

I pray with all my heart that the words of the gospel that she has heard over and over again will burst alive even in her suffering, lacking-in-oxygen brain, with all of the music and colors and poetry and goodness she has ever experienced in this life. And that she will see that those good things are just GLIMPSES of Heaven. Heaven! Heaven is real. Heaven is the Triune God. Heaven is possible for all of us because of the saving work of Jesus Christ.

 Please do continue to pray for my mom, Kathy, if she comes to your remembrance. She is not doing well.

Thank you!

Much love,
Tara B.

PS
From Jonathan Edwards’ Heaven–A World of Love:

2. Perfect tranquility and joy in heaven. — Charity, or holy and humble Christian love, is a principle of wonderful power to give ineffable quietness and tranquility to the soul. It banishes all disturbance, and sweetly composes and brings rest to the spirit, and makes all divinely calm and sweet and happy. In that soul where divine love reigns and is in lively exercise, nothing can cause a storm, or even gather threatening clouds.

There are many principles contrary to love, that make this world like a tempestuous sea. Selfishness, and envy, and revenge, and jealousy, and kindred passions keep life on earth in a constant tumult, and make it a scene of confusion and uproar, where no quiet rest is to be enjoyed except in renouncing this world and looking to another. But oh! what rest is there in that world which the God of peace and love fills with his own gracious presence, and in which the Lamb of God lives and reigns, filling it with the brightest and sweetest beams of his love; where there is nothing to disturb or offend, and no being or object to be seen that is not surrounded with perfect amiableness and sweetness; where the saints shall find and enjoy all that they love, and so be perfectly satisfied; where there is no enemy and no enmity; but perfect love in every heart and to every being; where there is perfect harmony among all the inhabitants, no one envying another, but everyone rejoicing in the happiness of every other; where all their love is humble and holy, and perfectly Christian, without the least carnality or impurity; where love is always mutual and reciprocated to the full; where there is no hypocrisy or dissembling, but perfect simplicity and sincerity; where there is no treachery, or unfaithfulness, or inconstancy, or jealousy in any form; where there is no clog or hindrance to the exercises or expressions of love, no imprudence or indecency in expressing it, and no influence of folly or indiscretion in any word or deed; where there is no separation wall, and no misunderstanding or strangeness, but full acquaintance and perfect intimacy in all; where there is no division through different opinions or interests, but where all in that glorious and loving society shall be most nearly and divinely related, and each shall belong to every other, and all shall enjoy each other in perfect prosperity and riches, and honor, without any sickness, or grief, or persecution, or sorrow, or any enemy to molest them, or any busybody to create jealousy or misunderstanding, or mar the perfect, and holy, and blessed peace that reigns in heaven! And all this in the garden of God — in the paradise of love, where everything is filled with love, and everything conspires to promote and kindle it, and keep up its flame, and nothing ever interrupts it, but everything has been fitted by an all-wise God for its full enjoyment under the greatest advantages forever! And all, too, where the beauty of the beloved objects shall never fade, and love shall never grow weary nor decay, but the soul shall more and more rejoice in love forever!

Oh! what tranquility will there be in such a world as this! And who can express the fullness and blessedness of this peace! What a calm is this! How sweet, and holy, and joyous! What a haven of rest to enter, after having passed through the storms and tempests of this world, in which pride, and selfishness, and envy, and malice, and scorn, and contempt, and contention, and vice, are as waves of a restless ocean, always rolling, and often dashed about in violence and fury! What a Canaan of rest to come to, after going through this waste and howling wilderness, full of snares, and pitfalls, and poisonous serpents, where no rest could be found!

And oh! what joy will there be, springing up in the hearts of the saints, after they have passed through their wearisome pilgrimage, to be brought to such a paradise as this! Here is joy unspeakable indeed, and full of glory — joy that is humble, holy, enrapturing, and divine in its perfection! Love is always a sweet principle; and especially divine love. This, even on earth, is a spring of sweetness; but in heaven it shall become a stream, a river, an ocean! All shall stand about the God of glory, who is the great fountain of love, opening, as it were, their very souls to be filled with those effusions of love that are poured forth from his fullness, just as the flowers on the earth, in the bright and joyous days of spring, open their bosoms to the sun, to be filled with his light and warmth, and to flourish in beauty and fragrancy under his cheering rays.